Zhu Yu, with these doubts in her mind, watched as several guards struggled to smash through the thick ramd earth wall, revealing the original blue stone brick walls and the original doors and windows inside.
Then she was surprised to find that the doors and windows inside were not covered with paper, but were tightly nailed shut from the inside with wooden boards, almost as if not a breath of wind could pass through.
Seeing this, the rune frowned and couldn’t help but think of the light-fearing Chang’e Drunk from before, glancing at Lu Qing, "Sir... could this be sothing like the Immortal Castle?"
Lu Qing slightly lifted a corner of the veil at the front of his hat, asking Zhu Yu, "What do you think?"
"It shouldn’t be, that thing would wither without regular watering and wouldn’t live that long.
I can’t say for sure now, but... once they get the door open, we really shouldn’t get too close," Zhu Yu whispered to him and also to the talisman by her side, "It’s already been over a year since they sealed this place off. No matter what, the sll inside won’t be good..."
After all, with outsiders present, she couldn’t be too blunt with her words and could only hint at what she ant.
Fortunately, Lu Qing had always been in sync with her, and the talisman had, during this ti with Zhu Yu, co to trust her as much as they trusted Lu Qing, so none of them raised any objections. The four stood at the back, none eager to step forward.
The guards from the Prince Mansion were eager to get the High Priest out and report back after coming in and seeing that there was no apparent danger. They seed to have forgotten about the poison on the front door and completely ignored Lu Qing and the others.
Seeing their deanor, Zhu Yu couldn’t help but suspect that these people had been hired from elsewhere with a high price, acting more like ruffians with no resemblance to the disciplined guards of a Prince Mansion, displaying an aggressive and violent temperant instead.
On the way here, Zhu Yu had seen these guards easily bullying the weak, acting both vile and brainless today.
It seed King Fan was easy to fool, or else he wouldn’t have kept such unruly people as guards, using them to plunder the innocent outside.
From this, it also appeared that King Fan might have already been overwheld, his sole goal being survival, unable to manage anything else within his domain.
It wasn’t long before the guards had broken through the door as well.
They imdiately discarded the wood, exchanged looks, and one stepped forward, knocking on the door with the hilt of a knife: "High Priest, the King requests your presence for urgent matters!"
After speaking, everyone held their breath, listening intently for any sound from inside.
The house inside remained silent, with not a single sound heard.
"High Priest, the King is in a hurry. If you don’t open the door, don’t bla us for being impolite!" The guard knocked a few more tis, but still heard no response, so they shouted again.
Their call was t with silence.
So they hesitated no longer and swung their weapons at the door.
The door, although bolstered with wooden boards inside, was not made from the hardest material, and after so effort, the door was chopped into pieces. A few kicked at it, and the shattered pieces fell to the ground, revealing the bare doorway.
Looking inside from the doorway, it was dark, and seeing no movent, the guards were ready to charge inside.
Zhu Yu, seeing this, thought for a mont and took a couple of steps forward to call out to them: "Honored guards, my master asked to tell you, don’t rush in just yet. Knock open those windows first, otherwise, it’s so dark you can’t see a thing."
After saying this, she quickly turned her head and ran back behind Lu Qing, not wanting to get near that door at all.
But her actions looked like those of a naive apprentice, pushed by her master to relay a ssage, which made the guards think she was simply nervous and frightened.
The guards peered into the dark doorway and found so sense in her words. It was pitch black inside, with nothing visible, which wouldn’t be good for them should anything happen.
So they spread out, circling around to break the wooden boards covering the windows with their weapons, allowing light to spill inside.
"Second Master, why did you remind them of that?" The talisman was puzzled and asked Zhu Yu quietly while the guards were out of earshot, "Why bother with them? Let them do as they please!"
"You don’t get it." Zhu Yu shook her head, glancing at the direction of the guards. "I’m afraid if they don’t open up the windows and go in, they’ll end up dead inside, and we won’t have any witnesses to account for us in front of King Fan."
"Huh?!" The talisman was shocked.
"More than a year, sealed in a place that’s more like a tomb than a tomb itself, anyone would be dead by now." Zhu Yu sighed, glancing at Lu Qing.
Lu Qing gave her a look from the edge of his veil, seeming already clear on the fact that no one inside could be alive, but he only said to Zhu Yu, "Make sure it’s safe first, then you can go in."
"We’re all the sa," Zhu Yu replied.
None of them spoke again, watching as the guards broke open the surrounding windows, and finally, the once pitch-black doorway began to show so shadows.
With the windows shattered, the relatively small room was ventilated from all sides. Zhu Yu and the others stood upwind, feeling less anxious, and stayed a safe distance away, watching the curtains inside sway like so many phantom shadows.
Just from those curtains, it mirrored the style of King Fan’s chamber exactly, seemingly crafted by the sa hand.
Since there was light inside, the guards hesitated no longer, rushing in while shouting "High Priest."
Lu Qing and the others waited patiently outside.
Zhu Yu listened to the guards’ loud shouting inside, estimating that they had helped ventilate the room plenty but couldn’t muster much sympathy as she thought of the people’s suffering caused by these so-called guards all the way there.
Soon, they heard the guards announcing they had found the High Priest, but it was solely in their voices, with no response heard.
A mont later, a guard erged with a strange expression, calling out to Lu Qing, "Divine Doctor, don’t wait outside! Co in and help us see what’s going on!"
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